


I am Dead

by Icecat62



Category: due South
Genre: Challenge Response, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-09-21
Packaged: 2018-02-18 07:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2340311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icecat62/pseuds/Icecat62
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Francesca's life is changed by Ray moving to Florida.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I am Dead

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to RedSuitsYou@yahoogroups.com - May 2002.  
> Anna’s 5 Minute Challenge.

*I am dead. The inevitable cannot be changed.*

Sitting at her desk, Francesca stared at the monitor. It had been seven months since Fraser had left. She some how knew that when he and Ray had gone after Muldoon, that they wouldn’t be coming back.

Sighing, she picked a paper out of a bin and scanned it. Another request for files on a murder.

This was her life now. Get up in the morning, go to work, pull files, then go home to an empty apartment. She closed her eyes briefly, wishing things could be like they use to be.

Things were great before Ray had come home. It wasn’t like she wished her brother had stayed away, but things were quieter at home with him gone. Nicer.

The moment Ray stepped back into her world, things went nuts. Everyone had always tried to blame Fraser for all the messes that Ray got into, but Frannie knew Ray was a disaster magnet. He always had been with Fraser around, it was just that more people took notice of what Ray was doing.

She smiled slightly. Hell, who wouldn’t have to taken notice of Fraser? He was so damned handsome. So polite. So…gone.

Her frown returned. She knew he wasn’t going to stay. She knew it the moment he admitted that he liked her. She could tell that he more than liked her, but it wasn’t enough.

The letter from him was short. A few words about Muldoon’s capture, then a few more words stating that he and Ray Kowalski would be going on a quest for some stupid body part.

Her fingers jabbed angrily at the keyboard as she called up the files for the murder. If Fraser had come back, she knew her dork of a brother wouldn’t have married that bleached blonde bitch and moved to Florida.

That’s when things changed even more. Ma had visited Ray shortly after they left and one of their relatives talked her into staying. Tony, Maria and the kids all soon followed. Maria was always up their mother’s ass and couldn’t stand being that far apart from her.

What in the hell was she supposed to do? Live in that big house all by herself? Pay all those bills on her shitty salary? With a snort, she hit the print key.

Ray sold the house and she found a small efficiency apartment in an okay neighborhood. She had ignored Ma’s pleas to come to Florida and live with her. Thanks, but no thanks. Florida was okay for a vacation, but Chicago was where she wanted to be. There were too many memories…she wasn’t ready to leave just yet. She had to see if she could make it on her own for once in her life.

By the time she got home, she was dead tired and depressed. Peeling her clothes off, Frannie quickly changed into a pair of sweats and an old RCMP t-shirt that she had stolen from Fraser on one of his stays at the Vecchio home.

Flopping down on the worn out sofa, she turned the television on as she ate a bowl of oriental noodles and broth. A Kodak commercial came on showing a little girl playing with a puppy, then she aged and became a bride preparing for her wedding. Without realizing it, Frannie began crying.

The doorbell rang.

“Great, this is all I need.”

There was a man down the hall that constantly asked her out. He wasn’t all that bad looking, but he just wasn’t her type. She had told him over and over that she wasn’t interested and he just wouldn’t get it through his thick head that she didn’t want to go out with him.

Mumbling under her breath, Frannie wiped the tears from her face and stomped to the door. Flinging it open she opened her mouth to yell only to stand there frozen in place.

“Hello Francesca.”

She stared at him like an idiot, not moving or speaking.

“Francesca?”

Her voice was low. “Oh my God…it’s you.”

Fraser worried the brim of the stetson in his hands, looking unsure of what to say or do. Did he make a mistake in coming back? Had he been wrong about how she had felt about him?

Frannie continued staring at Fraser, not believing that he was standing before her. He looked good. He looked damned good! He had lost a little weight, making his already chiseled features stand out even more. He had a healthy glow about him, his skin wasn’t all pasty and pale. The thing that made her stare even more was his hair. It was long and curly, brushing the collar of his jacket. God, she wanted to reach out and run her hands through it.

Fraser began backing away from the door. “I’m sorry to have bothered you…I’ll be going.”

When he turned away, Frannie snapped out of her shell-shocked coma. “No! Wait! I mean…come in…have a seat.”

She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into the apartment, slamming the door closed with her foot. Fraser now stared down at her, the old deer in the headlights look plainly on his face.

She quickly let go of his arm and backed a few steps away. Running a hand through her hair, she cringed and mumbled under her breath. “Shit.”

“Pardon?” Fraser’s eyebrows had shot up.

“Oh…I’ll…let me go and change. I mean, I don’t normally look like this…I just got off of work and I was watchin’ TV and…”

Fraser took a step toward her, a smile coming to his face. “You look beautiful Francesca.”

She smiled nervously back at him. “I do?”

“Yes.”

Tugging at the t-shirt’s hem, she gave Fraser a guilty look as his smile widened as he looked at the shirt. “I uh…well I took it…I didn’t think you’d mind.”

Frannie felt like an idiot, then it hit her. Why in the hell was Fraser here? “How come you’re here? I thought you and Ray were looking for something?”

Fraser tugged nervously at an earlobe and moved from foot to foot. When he looked into her eyes and spoke, she felt her heart stop. “We went on a quest and I found that I left something behind in Chicago that I shouldn’t have.”

The way he looked at her left no doubt as to what he had left and it wasn’t the t-shirt. She couldn’t resist doing it. She pulled the t-shirt up and over her head. Holding it out to Fraser, she frowned. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have taken it from you if I had known it meant so much to you.”

To her surprise, Fraser didn’t appear flustered. Taking the t-shirt from her hands, he dropped it along with the stetson on the table. Taking another step closer, his expression grew serious.

“You know this isn’t about the shirt.” He took a deep breath. “Francesca…would you come back with me? To Canada.”

Canada? He wanted her to go back with him? Without thinking, she nodded her head yes, causing a joyful smile to appear on his face.

Taking her hands in his, he pulled her closer to him. “Are you sure?”

Finding her voice, Frannie smiled back at him. “If I wasn’t sure, would I have taken my shirt off in front of you?”

Cocking his head to the side, he smirked.

“Okay…so I’ve taken my clothes off in front of you before! So sue me!”

When he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, she was at first shocked, then pleasantly surprised when he leaned down to kiss her.

It wasn’t a chaste kiss, it was one of those ‘I want you now and I’m going to have you now’ kisses.

As she felt him slowly lead her to the bedroom, she thanked Ray for being such a selfish bastard and moving to Florida.

END


End file.
